Part of Enterprise and Regulatory Reform Bill – in a Public Bill Committee am 10:40 am ar 19 Mehefin 2012.
The key problem for business at the moment, in my evaluation, is low consumer demand for products. In that context, businesses are looking to reduce overheads. Do you feel this change will create a cultural shift whereby businesses feel that they can more easily move towards reducing their headcount in a way that they could not before? Will they say, “We have got to get rid of some costs so we will get rid of Anne and Andrew”—or whoever it happens to be—“even though they are not really doing anything particularly wrong.” Is this, therefore, a retrograde cultural change that will breed fear rather than hope in the workplace?